Honey Baked Ham- a copy cat recipe of sorts

Last year for Thanksgiving, we ordered a Honey Baked Ham and had that along with turkey and all the fixins'. (Well, some of the fixins'- I don't make a plethora of sides.) We had plenty of meat, put it that way. We had family coming in from out of state who faced the derision of traveling during the pandemic and the least we could do was ply them with protein. The HBH was really good but the price tag was not: we paid close to $80 for the ham. Ham, for goodness sake. It just doesn't seem like ham should cost that much?

This year, I wanted to have ham that tasted like HBH but that cost much less. Since I doubted strongly that the inflation we're experiencing now would bring the price of HBH down from last year, I decided the best thing to do was try to replicate the taste and texture (that crunchy glaze!) of the ham. I began to  look for copy cat recipes of the HGH and found that there were many recipes for it. 

A number of recipes called for using a blowtorch on the ham. That was to create the crust like coating of sugar and spices that sets a HBH apart from traditional ham. I considered buying a blowtorch since that is something that I do not own and they aren't really that expensive. But I am at the point in my life where I really start questioning purchases for items that I am only going to use a time or two each year. No, I decided to not purchase a blowtorch.

Recipes that did not call for the use of a blowtorch gave instructions to broil the ham after the sugar/ spice coating was applied and that would create the crust on the ham. Broiling is something that I could handle so I decided to go with a recipe that called for broiling. I used a recipe from a food blog called The Chunky Chef.  The result was really good! I can't say for certain how closely the ham tastes to a HBH because I don't remember exactly what HMB tastes like. All I can say is that following this recipe results in a very good tasting ham. And it costs way less money. And no one has to drive out to a HBH store to pick up the ham. 

So yes, I will be making it again- probably next month when we host Christmas. The recipe calls for the ham to be heated in a crock pot but my ham was too big for my crock pot so I warmed it up in the oven. I made the ham the day before we ate it for Thanksgiving. I covered it, of course, in the fridge but I still felt like it tasted a little dried out. I would prefer to make it the day we eat it the next time that I make it. However, if I make it for Christmas, there will be no room in the oven for it so I will likely have to make it the day before.

 Here is the recipe:

Ingredients-

Bone in spiral sliced half (recipe is for an approximately 8lb ham)

2 TBSP butter, melted

3 TBSP honey

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon of seasoned salt, onion powder, cinnamon, nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon of ginger, cloves, paprika

pinch of allspice

Instructions-

1. Place ham in crock pot or roasting pan if warming in oven.

2. Combine the butter and honey and place on the ham, getting some in between the slices

3. Heat according to instructions for the ham's size- an 8 pound ham will need about 1 1/2 hours at 275 degrees

4. After the ham is warm, take it out of the oven and move oven temperature/ setting to broil

5. In a bowl, combine the sugar and all of the spices

6. Place half of the sugar mixture over the ham and place ham in the oven to broil for a couple of minutes until caramelized.

7. In a saucepan, place remaining sugar/ spice mixture with three tablespoons of liquid- this could be water or juice from the pan (I used juice from the pan). Bring mixture to a boil on the stove and let boil for a minute

8. Brush the boiled mixture onto the ham and place the ham back in the oven for a minute or two, watching it carefully so it doesn't burn

9. Remove from the oven and enjoy! Your butter/ honey/sugar/ spices broiled on the ham have produced a delicious tasting meat. Pat yourself on the back and then get back to work. If you are hosting, you likely have a lot of other dishes to make and you for sure have the kitchen to clean up :).

I bought our ham at Aldi. At Kroger, when I was going to buy one, hams cost $3.99/ lb. I passed on purchasing the ham at Kroger, hoping that Aldi would sell them for less. Indeed, ham was selling for a much cheaper price at Aldi- $1.99/ lb so I bought a good ol' Appleton Farms (Aldi brand) ham at Aldi. 

The melted butter/ honey combined- I slathered this on the ham before it went into the oven to heat.

Combining the sugar and spices- another reason to like this recipe is the common spices that are called for in the recipe. While I did not have every spice on hand, I had almost all of them. 

The ham with the sugar/ spice mixture before it went back into the oven to broil

This is what it looked like after the first broil...

And here is how it looked after the second broil when I added the sugar/spice/liquid mixture